The IEEE Life Science Systems and Application (LSSA) workshop is sponsored by IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, the oldest society within IEEE, whose 20,000 members are in the fore-front research of various important information technology areas, such as nanotechnology/nanoelectronics and circuits/systems for different applications. The success of the society in advancing the technology frontier has been demonstrated in the past in a number of critical areas such as submicron technology, microelectronic circuitry, multimedia technology, medical imaging, etc. Advanced systems and applications in life sciences are intensely interdisciplinary fields that offer exemplary possibilities for the cross-fertilization of ideas between several disciplines: public health, systems on chip, bioinformatics, drug discovery, translational medicine, medical imaging and neural science. It is increasingly recognized that circuits and systems play a critical role in life sciences informatics and engineering research. However, the circuits/systems communities are unprepared to take on the numerous challenges that this area presents. A near absence of dialogue among computer engineers, information technology, biologists and clinical scientists necessitates the establishment of a forum where an interchange of ideas from these diverse areas can take place. This urgent scientific need has led us to plan a concerted and proactive effort to inform, and educate researchers and to initiate new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in the form of a workshop. The aims of this workshop are: (1) to provide a forum for presenting new advancements in systems and applications in emerging life science applications, as well as exchanging new ideas and advancements among fellow engineers to stimulate multidisciplinary and collaborative research in the life science systems and applications;(2) to foster beneficial interaction between scientists and engineers to facilitate identification of potential areas for research and collaboration between the life science and systems engineering communities, and to create new techniques and instruments usable for the broad life science community;(3) to promote awareness of the emerging field of life science systems and applications in the circuits and systems communities, and to further stimulate multidisciplinary and collaborative research in these areas. To achieve these goals, this workshop will consist of both invited sessions and contributed sessions. Invited speakers will give tutorial talks on the general area of life science systems and applications. In addition, we will have special sessions for the broad life science application domain, e.g., neuroscience, public health, drug discovery, and life science technologies including medical imaging, biochips, and life science automation. With the carefully planned invited sessions and contributed sessions, especially the tutorial components and special sessions for the emerging fields, we believe the success of LSSA Workshop will be well warranted.